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The root of the problem is that developers in Portuguese organizations have little "political" power and low social prestige. They are generically put under the

The root of the problem is that developers in Portuguese organizations have little "political" power and low social prestige. They are generically put under the "técnicos" (technicians) category, not a very prestigious term. It's kind of a class thing: high class people do not dirty their hands with manual labor and boring technical stuff. High class people should manage other people and do not really have any responsibility towards their lower-class subordinates. Responsibility only flows upwards, never downwards. This is of course not a uniquely Portuguese problem, but is probably a more widespread issue in unequal societies with ingrained class distinctions. The cult of the MBA (as defined by Spolsky) reigns supreme in Portugal. Managers think it's perfectly natural to be deeply ignorant of the problem domain of their organizations. This might work when you're managing nail factories (or maybe not), but when applied to managing developers it is insulting, disempowering and demotivating.

Turing_Machine 14y ago
"It's kind of a class thing: high class people do not dirty their hands with manual labor and boring technical stuff." There may be some regional variants. A friend of mine who worked with some devs from the UK said that there the split is between guys who only write code (the 'higher class') and guys who might actually know how to plug in an Ethernet cable (the 'lower class'). I don't know if this is true in general, or just of the organization where he worked.
- olifante 14y ago
  As in most societies, there's bound to be a pecking order of some sorts, and I'm not saying that developers are at the rock-bottom of that order. And of course developers can be self-entitled, arrogant, obnoxious people — I might even be one of those :-) Whether one appreciates or resents developers, the fact of the matter is that most moderately talented developers have some notion that they possess a valuable and hard-to-acquire skill which paradoxically doesn't empower them, due to the relentless effort by companies to commoditize developers and treat them as fungible resources. Lacking power to effect any kind of meaningful change, developers with in-demand skills often end up voting with their feet, and organizations fail to accumulate and develop human capital.
galfarragem 14y ago
Once Portuguese employees are always wanted everywhere in the world, I only can think that the root of our problems is the lack of good "bosses". In Portugal, "bosses" are less educated than employees. 71,3% have a maximum of 9 years of school! http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/qualificacao-media-dos-patroes-e-bastante-inferior-a-dos-trabalhadores_1430503 http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/qualificacao-media-dos-pa... (portuguese language, sorry) How can these people invest in something they don't understand? They understand about carrying bricks and painting walls, that's why we have thousands of empty houses in Portugal and Spain. There is no place for VC and marketable innovation. We come from a time where we needed to be rich to study. Salazar regime didn't want people to study and emancipate. Now the old regime is over but mentality is still there, people are too used to obbey and are full of preconcepts. 2 wrong things my parents generation did bad because of their ignorance: a) made children to only focus on studies (cause they never had that chance). People get completely out of the market till they are 23-24. Then of course there are no available positions for high skilled employees. We have no companies with that demand. They were never created! New companies were created by the uneducated bullies. If their families have no capital and they are having first contact with money and market at middle 20's they have no money to risk. 2 solutions appear: unemployment or emmigration. b) strong left wing (as bare reaction to Salazar right wing regime, without any thinking and ponderation): For example somebody lower than 16 years old caught working is considered crime in Portugal. If these kids are not making it to provide for their families or skipping school I see no problem with this.
- olifante 14y ago
  Education is not the problem, it's the solution. Even though there's a lot of brouhaha about educated unemployment, education really pays off in Portugal, compared to countries like Germany and Austria. Studies repeatedly show that the more educated you are (at least below Phd level), the better your life outcomes are, both in terms of years employed and of lifelong earnings. I agree however that we made the educational mistake of putting all eggs in one basket by declaring university education as the universal goal. Perhaps a dual education model such as the German one would help in that respect.
  - 14y ago

Turing_Machine 14y ago

"It's kind of a class thing: high class people do not dirty their hands with manual labor and boring technical stuff." There may be some regional variants. A friend of mine who worked with some devs from the UK said that there the split is between guys who only write code (the 'higher class') and guys who might actually know how to plug in an Ethernet cable (the 'lower class'). I don't know if this is true in general, or just of the organization where he worked.

olifante 14y ago
As in most societies, there's bound to be a pecking order of some sorts, and I'm not saying that developers are at the rock-bottom of that order. And of course developers can be self-entitled, arrogant, obnoxious people — I might even be one of those :-) Whether one appreciates or resents developers, the fact of the matter is that most moderately talented developers have some notion that they possess a valuable and hard-to-acquire skill which paradoxically doesn't empower them, due to the relentless effort by companies to commoditize developers and treat them as fungible resources. Lacking power to effect any kind of meaningful change, developers with in-demand skills often end up voting with their feet, and organizations fail to accumulate and develop human capital.

galfarragem 14y ago

Once Portuguese employees are always wanted everywhere in the world, I only can think that the root of our problems is the lack of good "bosses". In Portugal, "bosses" are less educated than employees. 71,3% have a maximum of 9 years of school! http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/qualificacao-media-dos-patroes-e-bastante-inferior-a-dos-trabalhadores_1430503 http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/qualificacao-media-dos-pa... (portuguese language, sorry) How can these people invest in something they don't understand? They understand about carrying bricks and painting walls, that's why we have thousands of empty houses in Portugal and Spain. There is no place for VC and marketable innovation. We come from a time where we needed to be rich to study. Salazar regime didn't want people to study and emancipate. Now the old regime is over but mentality is still there, people are too used to obbey and are full of preconcepts. 2 wrong things my parents generation did bad because of their ignorance: a) made children to only focus on studies (cause they never had that chance). People get completely out of the market till they are 23-24. Then of course there are no available positions for high skilled employees. We have no companies with that demand. They were never created! New companies were created by the uneducated bullies. If their families have no capital and they are having first contact with money and market at middle 20's they have no money to risk. 2 solutions appear: unemployment or emmigration. b) strong left wing (as bare reaction to Salazar right wing regime, without any thinking and ponderation): For example somebody lower than 16 years old caught working is considered crime in Portugal. If these kids are not making it to provide for their families or skipping school I see no problem with this.

olifante 14y ago
Education is not the problem, it's the solution. Even though there's a lot of brouhaha about educated unemployment, education really pays off in Portugal, compared to countries like Germany and Austria. Studies repeatedly show that the more educated you are (at least below Phd level), the better your life outcomes are, both in terms of years employed and of lifelong earnings. I agree however that we made the educational mistake of putting all eggs in one basket by declaring university education as the universal goal. Perhaps a dual education model such as the German one would help in that respect.
- 14y ago